Dark Of The Moon
by NinaNinjaFace
Summary: This is a really weird Zutara darkfic. Don't know why I even wrote it. Rated for character death.


**This is a really weird cheesy darkfic…if such thing exists…**

Zuko was standing in the entrance hall, everything dark. The only light came from a few candles placed haphazardly along the walls. He subconsciously lit a fire in one hand. He found his steps taking him outside, even though it was the dead of night. He had no idea why.

He found himself in the garden. His mother's garden, with the pond of turtle-ducks. Of course. He always came here to think.

Zuko let the fire die in his hand. The only light came from the moon. He thought of Katara, looking at the moon, the beautiful, strong woman who he loved. He stared out over the water, watching the blue, calm serenity for a few moments. Then he noticed something was wrong.

The water had turned red.

Zuko loved red, being of the Fire Nation. He had lived nearly all his life around it, the passionate, angry, fiery color. But this was different. Cold, hard as steel, unforgiving. He reached out to it, though every nerve in his body was screaming to turn and run.

It was blood in the water. Blood had polluted the beautiful waters of his mother's garden, the one place he truly loved. Staring out, Zuko saw something floating toward him. He could not tell what it was. Then something that had only happened to him once before happened again. The moon went dark.

Staring up, Zuko saw no sign of it. It had not gone behind a cloud, not been gradually eclipsed. It had just gone.

Hearing something brushing against the stones littering the bottom of the pond, he looked down. Lying there, blood running down her face, a wound clear in her chest, at her heart, lay Katara's body.

Zuko woke with a start. That was the third time he had had that dream, the dream of Katara dying. Every time he had dreamed that, he had woken up and either seen her there or gone searching for her. He had held her close, making sure she wasn't leaving him.

Tonight she wasn't there.

Zuko was out of his bed in an instant. "Katara?" he called out. The dark yielded no answer.

"Katara!" he yelled again. He found himself running down the stairs, into the entrance hall. Nearly all the candles had burned out, only a few lighting up the vast hall.

_Oh, Agni, no…_Zuko thought. He ran out the door, the cold biting into his skin almost instantly. It was colder than most nights in the Fire Nation. This scared him, completely irrationally.

He found himself running, as fast as he could, to the garden. He just knew she was there.

He could only hope that he could get there fast enough, though deep down he knew something was too late.

He burst into the garden, seeing her slim figure bending over by the water's edge. "Katara!" he called, his voice filled with relief. The figure stood. It was not Katara.

"Hello, Zuzu." said Azula's cold voice. "Didn't think you'd be seeing me this soon, did you, dear brother?" She let out an insane, maniacal laugh.

"Where…is…she." Zuko deadpanned. "What have you done with her, Azula?"

Auzla laughed again and gestured to the water's edge. "You're too late, Zuzu. You were always too late. You could never save the ones you loved. You were too late…" her voice faded off as she exited the garden.

Zuko didn't care that his insane sister had escaped. She could have done the one thing he would truly kill her for.

"Katara?" he slowly approached the small crumpled form lying at the edge of the water.

"Zuko…?" Katara was bleeding profusely from a wound in her stomach. "Zuko…"

"Katara, it's okay, it's all right, I'm here…" Zuko found himself saying. "Please, don't leave me."

"I can't…hold on." Katara murmured. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry, damnit!" he pleaded. "Just promise me you won't leave me. Ever."Katara gave her head a slight shake. "I can't…keep that promise…" she whispered, her voice growing weaker.

"Katara…please…"

"I'm sorry, Zuko." She said this with her last breath.

Zuko laid her body down beside the small pond. He watched without seeing as her blood seeped down to the water, tinting it the cold, merciless red.

**I wasn't very happy with this, but I decided that damnit, I was going to do a Zutara darkfic if it killed me! So you have this depressing excuse for one!! Lucky you. Please review. **


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